Grimbergen Cuvée Ambrée / Double (Dubbel)

Alken-Maes (Heineken)
Brewed at Kronenbourg (Carlsberg)
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Jumet, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip

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330 ml bottle. Pours a clear dark copper brownish amber with a resilient beige head. Aroma is slightly fruity, candy. Flavor is fruity, field berries (cherry, blueberry, strawberry), brown sugar. Finish is hints of spices. Lingering sugar, cough medicine and a hint of booze post-finish...urgh. Light body, somewhat watery, medium to strong carbonation. Sweet and easy to drink, but somewhat lacking in complexity for the style.

This is a great beer! Drank it from tap this time and it’s worth the money! Best "dubbel" that I know of.

Men...as far as Dubbels go this is boring and bland. Mold toffee and toasts make combine well but this lacks the delicious dark and candied fruits of the best abbey dubbels. Mild raisins and caramel meals with sweetness. Nothing special but not too bad either.

250ml bottle bought at Marketplace by Jason’s in iSquare, Tsim Sha Tsui.

Clear dark copper brown colour; Very thin head and residual off-white foam which fades in 15 seconds; Near zero lacing and barely notable carbonation; Faint smell of malt, light caramel, hint of vanilla, cherry / red fruit and light floral. All the smells have to be sniffed hard to be detectable; Okayish sweet taste of light malt, with very light caramel, molasses, very light yeast,hint of spices and citrus. Light body; watery palate; Mouthfeel is like a Dubbel being stripped of every good and memorable characters you can imagine, and being left with a sugary, barely malty / yeasty skeleton of the style. Really poor… Hoppiness is slight floral nose, barely detectable citrus and notes of bitterness for a subpar finish; Slightly dry after taste. Very easy to mouth.

Comments: For this brand, I had a pretty poor Belgian Blonde yesterday, a decent Belgian White this afternoon, and now this, a pale shadow of a tasty beer style I simply don’t want it to be associated with. Some nice cherry nose aside, this one is almost devoid of Dubbel characters, just a hollow skeleton of sugar and light yeast. If you like Dubbel, then make this one on your avoid list. Oh dear!

Måste ändå säga att den var helt ok belgisk dubbel mot vad jag hade förväntat mig. Typiska toner av belgisk dubbel. Känns välgjort ren och stabil. Men hur fan är man objektiv när man råkar veta att bryggeriet ägs av heineken?...

Nose very fruity, with cherry, field berries, crystallized fruits and cinnamon. Power from weak to average. Appearance: Brown amber, clear, almost perfect head; thick, dense, creamy and rocky at the same time, lasting for a very long time. Sticking marvelously to glass leaving a fabulous lacing. Taste: Everything happens in sugars. Notes are Candi sugar, caramel, crystallized fruits, with a disappointing sour after taste. Hops are showing a bit of action at the end but remain quite discreet. Mouth feel is somehow round and unctuous with an almost full body. A candy sugared beer missing a bit of finesse and flavor complexity.

Draft @ Amesbury Ale House. Snifter shows a deep crimson color with very little head without lacing. Nose dried fruits, molasses and caramel. Dark fruit, toffee and Belgian candy sugar in the flavor. Very mild, light on spice notes. This may not be a complex brew for the style yet; it is very approachable and could be a nice introduction to a dubbel to a friend or family member. Really easy to drink with a mellow flavor profile.

Ruby red colored beer, and it has a slightly brown foamy head. Somewhat sweet aroma. It tastes sweet like sweet licorice, but this goes on to a somewhat bitter aftertaste. Robijnrood helder bier met een lichtbruine schuimkraag. Enigszins zoet aroma, maar niet echt aanwezig. De zoete smaak heeft iets weg van zoete drop, maat gaat over in een subtiele bittere nasmaak.

Nothing special about this beer. Certainly it is drinkable, and far from unpleasant, but these doubles such as Grimbergen are starting to bore me. And they are doing it well.

Raw malty nose, light copper brown colour, good combo of malt and hops, malt wins though. Palate rather short and simple. Overall .. forgettable.